What’s Your Trip?

Got video from that trip to Japan in your closet? Could be worth thousands….

There has been an enormous amount of buzz around User Generated Content or UGC. In 2000, hoping to catch this trend, I opened the DV DOJO, a kind of video bar/cafe in the East Village in NY. It was across the street from CBGB, so the vibe should have been right. It was a kind of Internet cafe, but instead of email I had set up FCP video editing work stations. I gave out cameras and held both classes and screening sessions. Along with the coffee, muffins and beer, you would think it would have been a smashing success.

Four years, $700,000 and one marriage later, I closed it.

Well, maybe it was ahead of its time. But it did attract one very unusual visitor – Al Gore, who was casting about for a concept for his new cable channel – the one that would become Current.

Say what you will about Gore, one thing is undeniable. He has an uncanny ability to put his finger on the ‘next big thing’. And before it was Global Warming, it was the User Generated Content movement in the world of video. (And remember, this was ahead of Youtube!)

I spent about a year with Gore and company helping to set up Current. In the course of doing that, I schlepped across the country speaking at universities about the ‘video revolution’. That is, with a camera and an edit system, you too can make content for air. Within a few months, we had quite literally thousands of videos streaming in.

Now, we’re bringing this UGC concept to a whole new strand of programming for The Travel Channel. Well, what works better for the concept of travel than going off to new and exciting places with a video camera and a laptop editor.

This month we’re launching WHAT’S YOUR TRIP , a new series for Travel Channel that will start airing at the end of April. We’ve already accumulated more than 500 submissions, but we think this is just the beginning of the wave.

We’ll pay up to $1000 for each video used on air and we’re looking for travel related stories.